How to Shoot Aerial Video Using Drones and Quadcopters

Do: Start cheap.

My first five helicopters and planes are in the bin. Don’t do that to a $1,500 device. Do it to a $100 device a few times until you can fly that well, then progress. Think of it as progressing through levels in a video game.

Don’t: Assume there is a lot of money to be made.

Competition is intense; there are thousands of people with the capability who are commercializing their equipment and skills. There is some money to be made in the emergency services support sector, but it is difficult to negotiate a retainer, and agreeing to be available 24/7 is a huge commitment. Search and rescue and emergency services work is rarely paid unless you have a contract to support a national service. Crowdsourced volunteer groups (such as www.sardrones.org/) are emerging; this looks like a cool thing to get involved in but a poor thing to try to make a living from.

Do: Adapt the modeler's technology to your needs.

The model builders are some distance ahead of the broadcast industry in using RF links for wireless technology. First person view (FPV)—which aims to use video goggles to give the pilot the experience of being in the remote control plane—technology has been developing increasingly capable (and increasingly smaller) HD video links. While we’ve all seen the GoPro strapped onto quadcopters, there are smaller, lighter cameras that can be strapped to gliders, and even balloons, that will capture high-quality live video over ranges tens of kilometers. Remote control planes have been flying for decades and the enthusiasts have been focused on solving problems in this space for quite some time. Interestingly, IP is too prone to latency, so most of the links are RF, with streaming only becoming relevant at the ground station onward to the internet.

Don’t: Try to move your production kit into the air unless you have a lot of money.

Lifting a Sony broadcast camera into the air to get a 1080p image had better be worth the effort—it will need a large gimbal and significant power and airframe size, all of which is fine if you have budget—but make sure you really need it. For a short video clip, a GoPro or a tiny bullet camera might be a much better option, and can be lifted by a cheap device you can get from the local big box store.

Just make sure you get the right tool for the job. There are many options, but you are often only looking at reliability and time in the air as your key performance indicators. Putting a high-end kit in the air is, for many applications, a poor choice.

Do: Think about if you really need a drone.

I would challenge you to stop for a moment and ask yourself, “Do I really need to use a drone, or am I just looking for an excuse to play around with the technology?”

Don’t: Shy away from kites and balloons.

I was recently approached to film a public event from the air, which raised plenty of red flags. I am a hobbyist; I can’t fly for money. Even if I could, I couldn’t fly closer than 150 meters to the audience with a quadcopter.

Instead I got myself a helikite, essentially a helium balloon with a kite attached. Amazingly simple and stable, it gave me a sustained airborne filming platform for my small cameras. The cost was under £100, and it could have flown for weeks.

And while I still had to be more than 60 meters away from buildings “outside of my control” there was no problem flying walking around a crowd.

In the end, we didn’t charge—it was too much fun to be called work—but we had a lot of fun getting airborne, and dealing with the challenge of a camera failure due to the extreme cold (lithium-ion-polymer batteries and sub-zero air temperatures don’t mix).

Do: Learn to fly properly.

This can’t be stressed enough. Losing control could cause serious injury and property damage. Fortunately, practicing is a whole lot of fun.

Don’t: Rely on GPS or Autopilot.

Yes, GPS and portable smart devices make it possible to leave even low-end drones on autopilot and to focus on filming. Which is awesome, until the GPS lock fails or some unforeseen problem with the autopilot sends everything into chaos. Referring to the previous point again: be able to fly properly yourself.

Do: Have LOADS of fun.

Enough said.

And one final thing my family has taught me:

Don’t: Assume everyone will be enthusiastic.

Droning on and on wears thin on those who are not interested.

Watch Streaming Media for a much longer and more detailed article covering all aspects of aerial video in 2015.

This article appears in the 2015 Streaming Media Sourcebook as "Aerial Video."